LOVE IS A WAR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 758, 29 January 1954, Page 13

LOVE IS A WAR

THE BEST OF HUSBANDS, by Alba de Cespedes; Victor Gollancz, English price 12/6. THE NATURE OF LOVE, by H. E. Bates; Michael Joseph, English price 10/6. A LAW FOR THE LION, by Louis Auchinloss; Victor Gollancz, English price 12/6. A RING FOR LUCK, by John Pudney; Michael Joseph, English price 12/6. THE MORTAL SIN OF FATHER GROSSARD, by Eric Baume; Angus and Robertson, N.Z. price 13/6. "A MASTERPIECE!" was my first " "excited reaction to The Best of Husbands, another welcome translation from the Italian. Indeed, the first half of the book, with its descriptions of tormented family life in Rome (romantic mother versus cynical father), or the more stable and contented life on a farm in the Abruzzi, is moving and memorable. But once the heroine, Allesandra,

marries her priggish husband the interest declines, and we may no longer expect such judgments on human nature as "I have’ come to the conclusion that the myth we wish to leave behind us is the hidden mainspring of all we say and do, perhaps the very reason for our existence." The final tragedy falls flat. This is none the less a good novel whase overt theme is the sex war. H. E. Bates attempts to throw light on this man-woman equation in his three long short stories in The Nature of Love -better work than he has given us in recent years. These stories prove again, if proof were needed, that "the desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews." A Law for the Lion is a good novel from America in which the combatants are husband and wife in a typical middleclass New York setting, the husband carrying his self-righteousness to the length of bringing an unnecessarily sordid suit for divorce. Even his equally prissy daughter turns against him. Is there a natural human sympathy for "the guilty party?" John Pudney’s novel describes an imaginary Caribbean! island where a Negro cult almost turns a young visiting businessman into an unwilling Holy Bridegroom-successful so far as it goes in the field of sensation and action, with a few shrewd character sketches to garnish. The Mortal Sin of Father Grossard relates lightheartedly the story of a double deception. The main character is American, the main setting France, and Eric Baume fancies himself as a sophisticated retailer of gallicisms. This is a long short story eked out with drawings; its gaiety carries it through.

David

Hall